1. Technical Field
This invention relates to a vertical-type clothes press in which clothes such as a pair of pants or the like held between a fixed board and a movable board can be pressed for smoothing or creasing.
2. Background of the Invention
Conventionally, this type of press, e.g. as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,499,109 and 3,145,490, generally has a fixed board vertically mounted on a mount base and a movable board rotatably coupled to said fixed board through a hinge mechanism provided at the lower end of this fixed board, whereby cloths such as pants or the like are held between the fixed board and movable board and then hot-pressed.
The both fixed and movable boards described above have lengths required for pressing the great part of clothes such as pants or the like, and are formed of thick wooden boards so as to provide a substantial pressing pressure when the clothes are pressed.
When it is required to set the clothes such as pants or the like on said vertical-type clothes press, the movable board is rotatably moved with the clothes toward the fixed board to press them therebetween, after the shape of the clothes is put in order on the movable board in the open state in which the movable board is inclined toward this side.
In one of the vertical-type clothes presses clothes are lifted up during the process which the movable board is moved with the clothes close to the fixed board, e.g. as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,885,803, 3,070,910, and 3,477,154.
However, there are the following problems in conventional vertical-type clothes press having such structure.
First of all, it is required to rotatably move the movable board in the direction away from the fixed board when clothes are set on the press. Especially, when the heavy movable board formed of a thick wooden board is in its open state, the centroid of the press shifts to the side of rotational movement of the movable board, so that, the fixed board vertically mounted on the base is unstable and easy to fall.
Namely, since the centroid of the entire press shifts in the open direction when the movable board is open, it is required to increase the whole mass of the mount base to accommodate for the shift of its centroid, in order to maintain the press steady. Consequently, the mount base becomes large-sized to occupy a wide space for installation, and in addition to this, such a big base may stumble or trip an operator's foot to hurt, and be an obstacle when an operator stands in front of the press to work.
Since a job for putting the clothes in order is performed on the movable board in the open state in which it is inclined on this side, an additional force exerts in the open direction on the said movable board in the open state to inevitably make said base large in size so as to mount the fixed board steady.
Secondly, in the case of finishing closes with this vertical-type clothes press, it is required to change the position of the clothes with the movable board up to the vertical state, since the movable board is moved toward the fixed board to press the clothes after the clothes are put in order on the side of the movable board inclined. Consequently, the clothes may move downward, or the shape put in order may also be in disorder.
For example, as shown in FIG. 21, a horizontal-type clothes press adapted to be placed on a flat floor in use has also been desired such that the clothes B put in order on the fixed board A placed in a horizontal state are held by a transparent thin sheet C, so as to prevent the clothes B from moving disorderly.
In this horizontal-type clothes press, the following procedures can be easily performed: the clothes B is set on the fixed board A mounted in a horizontal state; and the clothes B set is pre-held by sheet C. However, the thin sheet used for this horizontal-type clothes press easily bends and is not able to stand alone in the inclined or vertical state, so that in a vertical-type clothes press used in the inclined or vertical state, such a thin sheet can not pre-hold the clothes on the movable board to prevent the clothes from moving disorderly.
Thirdly, it is well known that a pair of exemplary pants D finished with this vertical-type clothes press, as shown in FIG. 22, become baggy at the front parts F of the cylindrical parts E corresponding to knees and creased at the rear parts G and the front parts H of the third joints by being worn.
In order to eliminate creases and bags produced at respective parts of such pants D, it has been also performed that the pants D are lifted up during the process in which the movable board comes close to the side of the fixed board. However, in the configuration as described above, the upper parts of the pants D are lifted up as the movable board comes close to the side of the fixed board, but the front parts F and rear parts G of knees are not substantially extended, so that a preferred smoothing effect can not be obtained.